Oil-containing compositions used as lubricants for motor saw chains are consumed in great quantities in the Federal Republic of Germany and elsewhere. In West Germany, the annual consumption of such motor saw chain lubricant compositions amounts to about 6-7 million liters. In addition, the construction industry, requires considerable amounts of adhesive oil compositions as release agents for construction casings, particularly concrete construction cases in which the casing panels must be readily releasable from the concrete construction after hardening of the concrete poured into the casing. Such mold release agents are coated on the surface of the casing panels facing the concrete mixture to permit ready release of such panels. It is evident that such compositions must be tenacious, i.e., must cling or stick to the substrate to which they are applied.
Existing tenacious oil-containing compositions of both types employ an adhesive component (i.e. a component causing the composition to cling to the substrate comprising a high molecular weight polymer such as a polyethylene glycol or polyacrylic amide, each having a molecular weight of 1 million or above. Although these polymers impart sufficient tenacious property (or stickiness) to the composition, they are not biodegradable.
Known tenacious oil-containing compositions also contain (often toxic or mutagenic) mineral oils, i.e. petroleum distillation products or synthetic oils, such as hydrocarbon oils (polyolefins, halogenated hydrocarbons, etc.) and non-hydrocarbon oils (such as ester oils), none of which are biodegradable. As a result, known tenacious oil-containing compositions remain in the environment after use for a great period of time causing considerable pollution particularly of the waterbed. As is generally known, one liter of such compositions is sufficient to render about 1 million liters of water unfit for human consumption.
Certain colophonium containing compositions are known in the art, but not as mold release agents nor as lubricants. For example, mineral oil solutions of colophonium have been used in newspaper printing inks and as additives in mineral and synthetic oils (Ullmanns Encyclopedia of Technical Chemistry, 4th Ed. vol. 12, p. 530) as well as in paste-like petrolatum solder fluxes. Also known are dehairing compositions for pigskin consisting of 88-93% colophonium fused with 7-12% cotton seed oil (Kirk-Othmer, Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, 2nd ed., vol. 17, pp. 481-82).